338 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[July i, 1910. 



jpany. In such a case practically the same capital is men- 

 ti< med twice. 



.Many of the new companies formed with a view rather 

 in trading in rubber estates than to developing planta- 

 tions, and in most cases no doubt but a small proportion 

 of tiu capital authorized has been paid in. Even in case 

 of the substantial productive companies as a rule no) all 

 of the authorized capital has been issued. 



These reasons alone seem sufficient to indicate that not 

 every new rubber company floated is bound to add to the 

 world's production of rubber. 



ANOTHER NEW RUBBER CONDITION. 



ONE of the most interesting items in the rubber trade 

 for some time past is the official announcement by 

 die largest existing rubber manufacturing corporation of 

 arrangements for the control, on a large scale, of sources 

 of crude rubber, both forest and plantation. The amount 

 of this company's consumption of rubber is nowhere 

 stated, but it i- several years since, in one of its annual 

 reports, the sum of $16,000,000 was mentioned as having 

 been paid during a twelvemonth for crude rubber. It is 

 ci immon knowledge that the operations of the company 

 are today on a much greater scale, and meanwhile the 

 pound price for rubber has increased very greatly. 



The fact that various projects for the purchase of rub- 

 ber in primary markets by various manufacturers have 

 not always resulted successfully is no argument against 

 the wisdom of the new enterprise here referred to. Two 

 of the most successful individual rubber manufacturers 

 the United States have known were importers of Para 

 rubber on their own account something like a score of 

 years ago, and the fact that they conducted business on 

 this basis for a considerable period is evidence that they 

 must have found some profit in so doing. It may be men- 

 tioned that while neither of these gentlemen is now liv- 

 ing, the businesses which they founded are comprised in 

 tin- larger company now announced to be acquiring con- 

 trol of forest rubber properties in the Amazon basin, and 

 rubber plantations in the Far East. 



This latter feature means a distinct departure from 

 precedent. In other words, whereas comparatively small 

 manufacturers formerly competed with other buyers in 

 the open market at Para, the new system involves abso- 

 lute control of important rubber sources, without refer- 

 ence to rubber prices generally or the conditions of the 

 rubber market in which other consumers cover their re- 

 quirements. 



\side from the fact that the company referred to now 

 control financial resources such as were unknown for- 

 merly in connection with any one concern in the rubber 

 industry, various conditions have come about more favor- 

 able than in the past for a consumer desiring to become 

 also a producer of raw material. It was only recently 

 that extensive plantations of rubber, systematically con- 

 ducted, have begun to produce largely, at a cost which 



can he calculated closely in advance. Today importers 

 in Xew York are buying rubber practically direct from 

 plantations, and practically for account of individual cus- 

 tomers, and it would be quite as easy for a large con- 

 sumer to buy in Ceylon, for instance, and import on his 

 own account. 



Further than this, there seems no logical reason why a 

 manufacturer having capital at command should not buy 

 or develop a plantation on any scale desired, as well as 

 public companies organized for the purpose in London 

 or Edinburgh. After all, it is a question of managing a 

 plantation by a board of directors acting through a local 

 manager, just as a rubber shoe factory or a rubber tire 

 factory is operated nearer at home by a local superin- 

 tendent, under direction of a board none of whom is able 

 to make a shoe or a tire. 



There are plantation managers today as capable in 

 their lines as any factory superintendent, and the system 

 of plantation production of rubber has been as thorough- 

 ly developed as any line of manufacture. In fact, today 

 the production of plantation rubber is largely a manu- 

 facturing business, if account be taken of the large part 

 which machinery plays in converting latex into rubber. 

 If the plantation be well chosen and is placed under com- 

 petent management there seems to be no reason why the 

 result should not be as favorable from a plantation con- 

 trolled by a board of directors banded together for the 

 manufacture of rubber goods as if the board were chosen 

 for plantation management and had no other bond of 

 union. 



Not only has a change taken place in respect of rubber 

 being obtained by planting trees, but the Amazon river 

 rubber situation has become vastly more systematized 

 than formerly, the new condition being more favorable 

 to the satisfactory employment of capital on a large scale 

 by outsiders. As has been outlined in The India Rub- 

 ber World during recent months, new conditions of land 

 ownership have developed in Brazil. Whereas serin- 

 ■gueiros formerly worked singly or in small groups in an 

 unbusinesslike way, with uncertain results and often 

 without profit, today large areas of rubber land may be 

 acquired by firms, and advantage is being taken of this 

 condition in the collection, preparation, and shipment of 

 rubber on a large scale. 



It is true that at various times foreign capital has been 

 invested in forest rubber propositions in South America 

 with unsatisfactory results, but all the while rubber has 

 been shipped from the Amazon in constantly increasing 

 volume, and presumably profits have been made in the 

 business. Here, as in rubber planting or the manufac- 

 ture of goods, financial capacity and managerial ability 

 are required, and it is not easy to see why these cannot 

 be combined with respect to business in Brazil as well as 

 in any other country. 



The tendency in modern industry is toward the con- 

 trol by manufacturers of the raw material which they 

 require, and rubber does not seem to afford an exception 



